31st Annual Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame To Be Held At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

Published in Midwest Flyer – February/March 2020 issue

For the first time in the history of the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, the annual investiture ceremonies will be held at an airport on Saturday, April 18, 2020 (DATE CHANGED TO November 7, 2020)  at the new InterContinental Hotel at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport (KMSP).

Inductees include Eugene Andreotti, Jr., Dr. Harold H. Brown, Chester W. Hazelton, Glenn L. Hovland, Barbara J. Wiley-Lindquist, James G. Baker, James T. Hancock and William A. Mavencamp.

Eugene Andreotti, Jr. (Maj Gen, Ret), long associated with the Minnesota Air Guard, was Minnesota Adjutant General, 1988-2003. Andreotti was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and earned a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from the University of Minnesota. He worked briefly for North Central Airlines and later for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Joining the Minnesota Air National Guard, Andreotti was commissioned after graduation from pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. In 1971, he began flying the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. He was an air technician and held many positions, including Chief Safety and Maintenance Group Commander for the 133rd Airlift Wing (AW). Andreotti later transitioned to the C-130 Hercules and logged over 5,000 hours of flight time.

In 1988, Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich appointed Andreotti Minnesota Adjutant General; the first and only Air National Guard member to be appointed to that position, which he held thru 2003.

Andreotti advocated for and installed at Minneapolis and Duluth, the Starbase Minnesota education program, which has served over 50,000 inner city students, teaching them technology and aeronautics through the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Program.

Dr. Harold H. Brown was a Tuskegee Airman during World War II, served in the Korean War, and was a pilot with the Strategic Air Command (SAC), college vice president, lecturer and book author.

Brown was born in Minneapolis, Minneapolis, and is a graduate of Minneapolis North High School. He took his first airplane ride at Wold-Chamberlain Field in 1941 and soloed at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, after enlisting in the Army Air Corps.

Brown trained in the PT-17, BT-13 and AT-6 and was assigned to fly fighter aircraft. He went on to fly combat missions in the P-47N Thunderbolt, P-38 Lightning and the P-51C/D Mustang. His first assignment was with the 332nd Fighter Group at Ramitelli Air Field, Italy. Flying his 30th mission in Italy, he was strafing a German train when the locomotives boiler blew up and shrapnel damaged his engine, forcing him to bail out. He was captured and spent the last few weeks of the war in a German prisoner of war camp.

After the war, Brown received orders to be an instructor at Lockbourne Air Force Base, Columbus, Ohio. At the start of the Korean War, Brown was transferred to the Far East Material Command at Tachikawa, Japan. He flew missions from Taegu, Pusan and Seoul bases in Korea. During one flight, he experienced an explosive decompression while flying an F-80 Shooting Star jet fighter. The canopy departed the aircraft taking the rudder with it, also leaving a two-inch gash along his flight helmet. The canopy almost took his head off. Brown was able to safely land the aircraft.

Following the Korean War, with his unit still segregated, Brown was again assigned to Tuskegee Army Airfield as a flight instructor. He went on to earn qualifications as a bombardier/navigator while stationed at Lockbourne AFB a second time. He then advanced to become an electronics instructor and then supervised other instructors as the chief of basic electronics. As a senior pilot, Brown was selected to serve in the Strategic Air Command where he qualified as a B-47 pilot. In January of 1958, his unit’s mission transitioned from reconnaissance to electronic countermeasures. Eventually Brown became a flight instructor on the B-47. In 1961, he was hand selected to be a SAC Command Post Controller.

In 1965, Brown transitioned from active duty as a Lt. Colonel and attended Ohio University, receiving a degree in Mathematics. He went on to obtain his doctoral degree and taught at Columbus Area Technical School. He became chair of the Electrical Engineering Program and eventually vice president of Columbus State Community College.

Chester W. Hazelton (1910-2001) was an aerial photographer with Mark Hurd Aerial Surveys, and a global photographer.

Hazelton was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He began flying at Freeman Aircraft Service in 1933 in an OX-5 Travel Air, and received his Private, Commercial and Transport Pilot Certificates in the same year. He worked briefly at Freeman Aircraft Service as an instructor and special assignment pilot.

Hazelton spent the largest part of his career flying aerial photography missions. He joined the Mark Hurd Aerial Survey Company in 1938, flying missions for the Soil Conservation Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. Based out of St. Cloud, Minnesota, Hazelton flew mapping flights over northern Minnesota, and in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Maine.

When World War II broke out, the government had absorbed most of the Hurd employees and aircraft. Because of that, Hazelton joined Pratt & Whitney’s aircraft service department, training military mechanics on the installation of engines. Later he worked for Springfield Flying Service in Springfield, Missouri, ferrying new Cessna aircraft to customers. Following the war, Hazelton returned to the Twin Cities and worked at Northwest Airlines for one year, then returned to the Mark Hurd Aerial Survey Company in 1955.

At the time of his death in 2001, he had accumulated over 20,000 hours of flight time.

Glenn L. Hovland (1920 – 1994) was a World War II flight instructor, balloon flight support pilot, and corporate pilot.

A native of Austin, Minnesota, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps  in 1941, and became a flight cadet, soloing in 1942. He went on to earn his wings and a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant. He was assigned duties as a flight instructor at Yuma, Arizona; Pecos, Texas; and Lincoln, Nebraska, accumulating over 2,200 flight hours.

After he transitioned out of the Air Corps in 1945, Hovland embarked on an extensive aviation career beginning as a civilian instructor at Oxnard, California. In 1946, he moved back to Austin, Minnesota, where he flew charter flights across the country for local businessmen in a Navion, which was named “Spam Town” after his hometowns most famous product. He partnered with Austin Aero Service and continued flight instructing while serving as a Civil Air Patrol commander. During this period, Hovland flew charter flights for several well-known politicians, including Adlai Stevenson, Estes Kefauver and President Eisenhower.

In September 1955, Hovland was hired to ferry Lockheed Lodestars from Spain to Minneapolis where they were to be demilitarized and sold for civilian use. It was during this time that he worked as a chase plane pilot for high-altitude balloons. Among the balloons Hovland tracked was the balloon piloted by Joseph Kittinger in “Project Manhigh,” a pre-space aeromedical project of the U.S. Air Force from 1955-1958. Hovland tracked the balloon from South St. Paul, which reached an altitude of 95,000 feet. Under a follow-up project, Hovland tracked Major David Simons on another epic flight that topped an altitude of 101,000 feet.

Hovland later began working for Minnesota Airmotive and became a corporate pilot for Hormel Company. Hovland flew at least 6,800 hours chasing balloons and over 40,000 hours in all when he retired in 1982.

Barbara J. Wiley-Lindquist is a native of Robbinsdale, Minnesota. Her father was the pilot for her first airplane ride at Minneapolis-Crystal Airport. She later soloed a Cessna 150 in 1965 and earned her Private Pilot Certificate a year later. She went on to earn her Instrument, Seaplane, Instructor and Air Transport Pilot Certificates by 1971, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from the University of Minnesota, and taught in the Osseo School District.

Once Wiley accumulated 4,000 hours of flight time instructing and flying charter at Crystal Shamrock, she applied at North Central Airlines. Because she was a woman seeking a job in a male-dominated occupation, she masked her gender on the application by only using her first initial and last name.

Wiley was hired by North Central Airlines in 1974 as a First Officer and flew the Convair 580, becoming one of the first women hired by a major airline to fly “right seat.”

Wiley’s pioneering career continued with her becoming a DC-9 first officer in 1977, Convair 580 captain in 1979, DC-9 captain in 1984, and an Airbus A320 captain in 1991. She achieved the rank of captain on the Boeing 747-400 in 2004. Following her retirement from the airlines in 2005, she transitioned to screening and interviewing prospective pilots for Compass and Endeavor Airlines.   

James T. Hancock is a Vietnam veteran, was a captain with Northwest Airlines, a pilot examiner with the Federal Aviation Administration, an aircraft homebuilder, and has made 1,000 parachute jumps.

William A. Mavencamp of Maple Lake, Minnesota, was involved in Vocational Flight Training from 1970 until 1978. An FAA-designated examiner from 1972-2010, Mavencamp gave more than 20,000 checkrides during his career. He passed away in 2015.

In addition to the inductees, the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame will present awards to Marsha S. Bordner as “Aviation Writer of the Year” for her book “Keep Your Airspeed Up,” and to sculptor, Nicholas Legeros, as “Best Aviation Artist of The Year.”

Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame sponsors include the MSP Airport Foundation (Foundation Sponsor), Delta Air Lines (Forever In-Flight Sponsor), Cirrus Aircraft and Signature Flight Support (Jet-Setters Sponsors), Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA) and Wipaire, Inc. (Pioneer Sponsors), and JETPUBS, Inc. and Wings of the North (In-Kind Contributors).To register for the banquet, complete and mail the registration form at www.mnhalloffame.org or register online at www.eventbrite.com with a credit card payment.

The deadline for banquet reservations is April 11, 2020. Reservations will be accepted if space permits after that date, but specific seating requests may not be honored. All seating is assigned, and no tickets will be sold at the door.   

For reservations at the InterContinental Hotel call 800-496-7361. Use code “V8H” for a special MAHOF room rate of $179.00 (www.intercontinentalmsp.com). For additional information, email MAHOFBanquetReservations@gmail.com or call 952-906-2833.